Monday, August 22, 2011

On August 10th, while studying shorebirds at Jamaica Bay on the one area that was available for the smaller peeps, “the raunt”, I found 2 Marbled Godwits north of where I was. The birds provided outstanding views and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them calling back and forth to each other. In addition, to the 2 Marbled Godwits, I had one Hudsonian Godwit also north of the raunt, this was presumed to be the same bird that Bobby Kurtz and I had found on July 24th. That bird had been reported sporadically since it was found, so it was a guess that it was the same one. The Marbled Godwits sighting was late in the evening and I put out a post online with plans to get out the next day with better light to see what else might have blown in.

The next day I was held up from hitting the East Pond as scheduled by taking a call on my cell that went on for too long (thanks Gary). While on the phone, a call came in from birder Doug Gochfeld who hung up before I could pick up the line and he did not leave a message. Minutes later as I got into my car, I picked up a message on the list serve that Shane Blodgett had found 2 immature White Ibis on the East Pond. That was a pretty good sighting and it would have been a county bird, had I made it in time. Unfortunately, I made it to the East Pond a couple of minutes after the birds had taken off heading south. Later, Shane, Doug and I did search another area for the birds, but they were not relocated and not found after that morning. It was a terrific day for Shane, who not only found the 2 White Ibis, but also found the 2 Marbled Godwits and also 2 Hudsonian Godwits. I enjoyed looks at the Marbled and Hudsonian Godwits, but missed out on the White Ibis. Here is a link to some of Shane’s White Ibis photos. Later in the week, I made it out to Jones Beach on the 13th where I also connected with another Hudsonain Godwit that was hanging out on the spit by the Coast Guard Station. It was a Nassau County first for me and my third Hudsonian Godwit for the year. Here are some photos.

Hudsonian Godwit on the spit at the Coast Guard Station Jones Beach.

Digiscoped photo of 2 Marbled Godwits found on the East Pond of Jamaica Bay.